Apple v. Qualcomm: two new suits in China for $145 million

Apple is vigorously going after chipmaker Qualcomm in the US and, now, in China.

Infinite Loop filed two new cases with the Intellectual Property Court in Beijing yesterday: one alleges that Qualcomm used its dominance in the mobile semiconductor sector to squeeze Apple away from the competition; another claims that Qualcomm has not made “standard essential patents” available for license at fair market rates. Both talking points have been parroted from the Federal Trade Commission in its own suit.

Don Rosenburg, general counsel and executive vice president of Qualcomm, had this to say:

These filings by Apple’s Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple’s efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm’s technology. Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them. These terms were consistent with our NDRC Rectification plan.

Indeed, Qualcomm paid the National Development and Reform Commission about $975 million in fines over unfair patent licensing terms and has had to renegotiate them with domestic manufacturers. Meizu held out on agreeing to a new contract with the San Diego-based company for several months.

Jules Wang is News Editor for Pocketnow and one of the hosts of the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast. He came onto the team in 2014 as an intern editing and producing videos and the podcast while he was studying journalism at Emerson College. He graduated the year after and entered into his current position at Pocketnow, full-time.